Roma: Resilient Tradition

Rome is a city of art, one that has seen an abundance of trades and crafts flourish over the centuries. Still today, a stroll through the city streets offers a wide variety of artisan workshops, especially in the oldest districts: the historic centre, Monti and Trastevere. It is no coincidence that many of the capitals streets proclaim the ancient trades previously established therein: Via dei Coronari (where artisans strung rosary beads), Via dei Funari (where ropes were coiled by hand), Via dei Balestrari (where crossbows were made and sold) etc. This precious heritage requires rediscovery, appreciation and safeguarding. This book of beautiful photographs is not only a fine publication but also represents a significant contribution to this aim. This is due not only to the artistic value of the images at the heart of the book but also to the atmospheres they evoke, reviving the memory of a Rome that, in many ways, no longer exists: a humble, authentic, working-class Rome, inhabited by artists and craftsmen with talented hands and passionate hearts.

With an undoubtedly nostalgic eye, Roma: Tradizione che resiste captures moments and daily routines that still withstand the passing of time, through the work and craftsmanship of industrious artisans, restorers who preserve antique styles, artists who cherish bygone techniques, stall-holders at the market, shopkeepers who dispense ancient wisdom, mechanics, and bike shops where know-how is passed on from father to son. The Rome immortalized in the films of Vittorio De Sica, Federico Fellini and Pier Paolo Pasolini, and convincingly portrayed by actors like Alberto Sordi, Nino Manfredi, Gigi Proietti and Enrico Montesano, has not disappeared; on the contrary, it sets its genuine beauty and authenticity against an increasingly fast-moving, technological, sterile world. The Rome redolent of tradition that knows how to adapt to the adversities of life is, in fact, imprinted on the faces and the hands of the artisans who meet up in the heart of the Eternal City.